Ghetto Grain Mill

[jhsbaker]

Ok, I don't have great woodworking skills, but I still had a shot at it...

My 18V cordless drill is a bit short on horsepower for this.... I had to put onto high setting and partly squeeze trigger to turn at low RPM.

What do you think of my crush? I have it set at a little over 1mm gap.

 

[Killer Brew]

Ha. That is ghetto as! Love it. Looks good to me.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Crush could be better. Needs more flour in it

 

[jhsbaker]

some photos of different gap sizes (measured using a spark plug gap tool)

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I would even close it to .9mm and see how it goes. Just go nice and slow when you do

 

[Killer Brew]

some photos of different gap sizes (measured using a spark plug gap tool)

Which of these is the ideal?

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

.97mm is getting close

 

[jhsbaker]

Thanks for the feedback! I'll update on how my efficiency is.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

A good crush is up to 30% flour with as many whole husks as possible

 

[Yob]

What sort of system? If BIAB you can go a higher % of flour..

 

[QldKev]

I've run my mill at 0.9mm since I started with BIAB, then 3V and also my 1V. Crush as fine as you can without getting a stuck mash.

 

[Exile]

I just use a CD to adjust my grain mill gap, seems to work well

 

[jhsbaker]

Adjusted to 0.9mm. Any risk of stuck spare?

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

What are the husks like. You may need to open it up a touch.

 

[_HOME_BREW_WALLACE_]

The crush may be too coarse in the above photos, but you can always run it back through the mill again (like I have done).

I used to use a coffee grinder to mill my grain. It always ground it into a medium coarse flour (which is perfect for BIAB)

 

[Crusty]

Adjusted to 0.9mm. Any risk of stuck spare?

There's always a risk of a stuck sparge even with a coarser crush.
It depends on your false bottom & how brave you wish to be with throttling back your pumps ball valve.
You need to try & find the balance between too much & too little flow. There's a lot of flour in there & that would be great if you were doing Biab but it looks a little too fine for re-circ for me. Not saying it won't work but go easy on the suction through the false bottom.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Good point Crusty

There is no no single crush that suits everything.

Different systems can handle different crush's.

High % flour works in BAIB, but is a real bitch in a standard type mash & sparge setup.

If its to coarse it take longer to mash and eff can drop

You want to keep as much whole husk as possible

Also have a search for "grain wetting" or more correctly, grain moistening.

 

[jhsbaker]

Picture below with 2 passes through mill at 0.9mm. I mash/sparge in Eski with copper manifold.

 

[Crusty]

Picture below with 2 passes through mill at 0.9mm. I mash/sparge in Eski with copper manifold.

I think you'll be ok, but as I said before, don't open your ball valve full throttle when doing a vorlauf in your case.
Just take it easy & open your ball valve slightly & open it up a bit more when your pretty sure it won't get stuck.
I've had a few stuck sparges with my old igloo cooler mashtun when being a bit too rushed. It's a bitch when you get one but it's not the end of the day either.
I think from memory I just did a single pass @0.9mm & it was perfectly fine on most occasions. I'm crushing much wider open now with the BM & the MiniMill & happily sitting @79% brewhouse efficiency.

 

[labels]

Not all malts have the same size and shape grains. Some are long and skinny, others are shorter and fatter so finding a compromise is hard.

Dampening the grain slightly with a spray bottle softens the husks and keeps them whole allowing for a finer crush. There is a trick to doing this and doing it incorrectly will result in a poor crush. But done right it will increase efficiency and you give you better lautering.

 

[Camo6]

I think you'll be ok, but as I said before, don't open your ball valve full throttle when doing a vorlauf in your case.
Just take it easy & open your ball valve slightly & open it up a bit more when your pretty sure it won't get stuck.
I've had a few stuck sparges with my old igloo cooler mashtun when being a bit too rushed. It's a bitch when you get one but it's not the end of the day either.
I think from memory I just did a single pass @0.9mm & it was perfectly fine on most occasions. I'm crushing much wider open now with the BM & the MiniMill & happily sitting @79% brewhouse efficiency.

Out of interest, what's your gap size Crusty? I need to tweak the minimill after increasing the rpm and wondering what people are running. Mines set to about 1.1mm but I was running at 60rpm originally.

 

[Crusty]

Hey Camo.
Mine is at 1.1mm as well. I'm just using the Ozito drill with my minimill & my rpm is up & down the entire crush. I try to keep it at the same speed though, as slow as I can.

 

[Camo6]

Cheers for that Crusty. I think I need to put a door on my new arrangement as at 180rpm its creating a lot more mess than the old setup.

Nice setup too James. If you've still got whole grains getting through give one or two a gentle pinch. If they don't crumble easily you may need to adjust the gap or speed to suit.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Dont forget that the smaller the roller diameter, the slower you need to go

 

[jhsbaker]

Ok, I milled grain for my next batch. It is a lot finer than I am used to from HBS. I want to give it a go and see how the sparge is. If it gets stuck can I just throw in some Rice hulls then?

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Looks ok to me

 

[jhsbaker]

Thanks for your feedback everybody. Today I brewed 2 American Ales using grain milled @ 0.9mm. It took a little bit of encouraging to get flow started, but once it was going it was all good.... plus my efficiency has gone from 60% with home brew milled grain to 75%.

Cheers
James

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

next time try the grain wetting method.

Gives you better husks and a slight increase with eff%

Even just playing with gap and speed will give you different results

You need to tune your crush to your system

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

1. Not all malts have the same size and shape grains. Some are long and skinny, others are shorter and fatter so finding a compromise is hard.

2.Dampening the grain slightly with a spray bottle softens the husks and keeps them whole allowing for a finer crush. There is a trick to doing this and doing it incorrectly will result in a poor crush. But done right it will increase efficiency and you give you better lautering.

1. So very true. Look at Rye and Millet

2. So very true. Brewers have dismissed this because they have got the trick wrong. The key is lees the better. 1/2 cup water to 5Kg grain max

 

[jhsbaker]

Next batch I will add water to my gain before crushing. I had a decent sparge but every husk was ripped in half.

Cheers
James